''Macteens'' was an

Apple Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software ...

community website and

online magazine An online magazine is a magazine published on the Internet, through bulletin board systems and other forms of public computer networks. One of the first magazines to convert from a print magazine format to being online only was the computer mag ...

targeted towards

teen Adolescence () is a transitional stage of physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated with the te ...

age users, featuring news, reviews, and forums, established in 1998. Following a period of dormancy, the website was revived in December 2001, by Chris Saribay and Andrew Wilkinson. It was under extensive redevelopment and recently has an almost all-new masthead of authors, editors and designers. It was under the management of Daniel Hollister when the site went down.

History

Macteens (branded as "MacTeens") was originally formed as collaborative

weblog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

formed in late 1998 by Neil Sroka and Jonathan Claydon. The website continually featured daily entries that noted news and the opinions of contributors. This early version of the website did not have any interactive portions, but had partnered with a website named ''MacParty'' to jointly host community discussion forums. This original incarnation of Macteens was also the first to discover the existence of Apple's

Power Mac G4 Cube The Power Mac G4 Cube is a Macintosh personal computer sold by Apple Computer, Inc. between July 2000 and 2001. Designed by Jonathan Ive, the Cube was conceived by Apple chief executive officer (CEO) Steve Jobs, who held an interest in a powerf ...

in 2000, before its official unveiling due to an accidental posting of specifications on ATi's website. Later, in that same year, the website was shut down, citing a floundering interest in the concept. The website was closed until late 2001, when Chris Saribay and Andrew Wilkinson began working to restore the website to its past glory. In 2002, with the assistance of Clark Mueller and Colin Winslow, the rebranded "Macteens" was launched, complete with new content from

Macworld Conference and Expo Macworld/iWorld was an information technology trade show with conference tracks dedicated to the Apple Macintosh platform. It was held annually in the United States during January. Originally ''Macworld Expo'' and then ''Macworld Conference & Expos ...

. The website continued to grow and evolve, eventually incorporating discussion forums and image galleries. Unique magazine-style content was added, including

tutorials A tutorial, in education, is a method of transferring knowledge and may be used as a part of a learning process. More interactive and specific than a book or a lecture, a tutorial seeks to teach by example and supply the information to complete ...

reviews A review is an evaluation of a publication, product, service, or company or a critical take on current affairs in literature, politics or culture. In addition to a critical evaluation, the review's author may assign the work a rating to indi ...

and

investigative reports The following is a list of television programs formerly or currently broadcast by A&E. Current programming Original Reality *''American Justice'' (1992–2005; 2020–present) *''City Confidential'' (1998–2005; 2021–present) *''Cold Case F ...

. Such reports would occasionally be referenced by those in the traditional media, including an article in the

Baltimore Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries. Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by Tr ...

that included excerpts of a Macteens report; noting several government related features in

Mac OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

. Macteens contributors were also interviewed by

television news News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or telev ...

crews, including

G4techTV G4techTV was a short-lived American cable and satellite channel resulting from a merger between Comcast-owned G4 and TechTV. The network officially launched on May 28, 2004. History On March 25, 2004, Comcast announced its plans to purchase ...

, CBC and

MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and politic ...

. Macteens continued to publish magazine-style content on its website, focusing on special event coverage of Mac events, such as

and Apple's

Worldwide Developers Conference The Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is an information technology conference held annually by Apple Inc. The conference is usually held at Apple Park in California. The event is usually used to showcase new software and technologies in t ...

, in addition to daily news, new product reviews and industry analysis. Headed by Daniel Hollister, Macteens intended on shifting focus back onto a magazine format with regular articles, reviews and how-tos. Multimedia is also intended to be implemented, with a series of podcasts and screencasts featuring discussions, tutorials and Mac-related news stories. The site remained down as of July 28, 2011, with text on the site reading "returning soon. seriously".

Extended projects, "teens" franchise

Macteens has a history of launching companion websites to further its reach into its target market. Some of these websites have a specific message (as in the case of DontBuyMusic, see below), while others extend the website's reach into other

operating systems An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...

, such as

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which i ...

and Microsoft Windows.

DontBuyMusic.com

In April 2003, Apple Computer had announced its new online-based music store, the

iTunes Music Store The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...

, selling songs for 99¢. Shortly after the launch of this product, in August, a competing vendor ( BuyMusic.com) began offering a similar product, selling music online. However, instead of using the companies' own marketing resources and assets, they closely mimicked and replicated Apple's marketing. Notably, this included both companies'

television advertisements A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, TV commercial, commercial, spot, television spot, TV spot, advert, television advert, TV advert, television ad, TV ad or simply an ad) is a span of television programming produce ...

; both featured people singing their favorite songs, aided by an MP3 player. Aside from a different title card noting the respective websites of each vendor at the end of each advertisement, the advertisements were identical. Macteens quickly took note of this, and began creating a

parody A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its su ...

of the website, named DontBuyMusic.com. Days later, lawyers representing Direct Response Network, parent company of BuyMusic.com, sent a legal order to Macteens' hosting providers, ordering that the site be deconstructed and removed, ironically citing that the use of

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...

ed materials was prohibited. Despite being protected by fair use laws, Macteens decided to shut down DontBuyMusic for a short period of time, while they worked to create a very similar website using their own code-base and graphics. As time progressed, BuyMusic.com began changing its marketing (and was eventually assimilated into Buy.com), and the website declined in popularity. As of this writing, DontBuyMusic.com forwards to the Macteens website.

Linuxteens

April 2004 brought the second member of the "teen franchise" for Macteens, with the creation of Linuxteens. Linuxteens was established with the same goals set in mind for Macteens: providing a community for teenagers, this time being users of the

operating system. Aside from covering news and including interactive portions such as discussion forums, the site also aims to develop and distribute its own version of Linux (development currently shelved). In early 2007, Linuxteens left the Macteens group (becoming www.teenlug.com)
Teenlug
is an entirely separate and unrelated network.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Macteens

Macteens Forums
Defunct teen magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 1998 Magazines with year of disestablishment missing Online magazines published in the United States